[libvirt-users] how to Create virtual machine

[Justin Clift]

On 08/20/2010 11:15 PM, Saravanan S wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am working on a virtualization project that involves setting up virtual
> appliances to implement the same, which tool is required to
>
> 1) create virtual appliances
> 2) deploy virtual appliances
> 3) manage virtual appliances/virtual machines
>
> Could you please guide me with some pointers or resources to get started
> with the creation of virtual machines?

Welcome aboard. :)

There are a _tonne_ of useful things on the Net about creating virtual 
machines.  As a first point of reference, I'll point you to the Fedora 
"Virtualization Guide", as it has good info and is being actively developed:

 
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Virtualization_Guide/index.html

(When RHEL 6 comes out, it will have a RHEL 6 specific version of that too)

HowtoForge is also very useful:

   http://how2forge.net/howtos/virtualization

Depending upon the distribution you're developing on, it probably has
something that will get you up and running. :)

ie:

   Fedora 13
   http://how2forge.net/virtualization-with-kvm-on-a-fedora-13-server

   Mandriva
   http://how2forge.net/virtualization-with-kvm-on-a-mandriva-2010.0-server

If you're using Ubuntu, a good starting point is here:

   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM


 > I am little confused with libvirt with Xen and qemu.
 > how does xen or qemu related with libvirt ?

This is probably covered in more depth by the above links.  The short 
version is that Xen and Qemu are the actual pieces of software that do 
the virtualisation. i.e Your virtual machine runs in either Xen or Qemu

libvirt provides a vendor agnostic management library, that management 
tools (ie virt-manager and others) use to control the virtual machines.

   ie start up a vm, shut it down, migrate it to another server, etc.

In regards to Qemu vs Xen, it depends upon your needs.  Xen never got 
accepted into the Linux kernel, and the parent company (that's a 
generalisation) was bought by Citrix who has continued developing it.

Qemu (though qemu-kvm) is part of the Linux kernel, and is getting a 
*huge* amount of development from many companies.  (including Red Hat)

Does that help?

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift